The road to the AS Monaco training center isn’t an easy, linear drive from the coast. You’re reeled in to higher ground on winding roads with tight turns. They keep your speed in check before you reach the beautiful facility, tucked into a mountain in the French commune of La Turbie, boasting a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean.
The club officially unveiled this facility in September 2022. A year later, they bought striker Folarin Balogun from Arsenal for €40m ($44m). That fee, including add-ons, is tied for the third-highest in club history and Monaco’s biggest since the pandemic by far. It carried the expectation that Balogun – who bagged 22 goals in 39 games in the previous season on loan at Reims – would resume his rise in Ligue 1 and elevate his new team in the Champions League. After a modest eight goals and seven assists in 32 games in his first season for Monaco, the pressure mounted.
And then it paused.
Balogun dislocated his left shoulder last October and, after returning for a match against Marseille, elected to have surgery that sidelined him until March. This, it turned out, would not be a smooth, straight ride to the top of French and European football, and World Cup glory with the US men’s national team.
“It was really difficult as anyone could imagine, not being able to do what you love doing,” Balogun tells the Guardian. “But I learned a lot about myself, which was also a positive.”
The Brooklyn-born, London-bred striker remained in Monaco for most of his rehab, and when he was abroad the club still organized and supervised the process.
“It was an opportunity for me to just look at things off the pitch. Look at the people around me, the team that helped me to perform, have more in-depth conversations with them, create clear targets for when I do return, and push people internally,” Balogun says. “I’m a part of a team in Monaco and in the US men’s national team, but individually I have my own set of people that help me to perform and do what I do to the best of my ability.”
In September, he made his long-awaited return for the US. That also happened to be his first camp under head coach Mauricio Pochettino, but that was far from his first contact with this US coaching staff. Pochettino’s right-hand man, Jesús Pérez, had visited Balogun late last season as he made his comeback, and the striker was set to join the US for the Gold Cup. But an ankle injury the day before a clash with Lyon ended Balogun’s season early, and delayed his return to the fall.
“I’ve done the long part and when I’m starting to find rhythm again, it was disrupted,” he says.
His absence might have gone on even longer. In an effort to prioritize players’ rhythm and fitness, Pochettino appeared willing to let Balogun stay with Monaco in September until an injury to another striker changed his mind.
Balogun returned to a US team much different to the one he played with in his last appearance. Yet Pochettino, the former Tottenham, Chelsea and PSG manager, wasn’t exactly foreign to the Arsenal academy product. Balogun had watched Pochettino’s teams enough to get a sense of what he looked for. But now, with one camp under his belt and another coming up this week, Balogun noted the difference in freedom under the new boss.
“From a structural point of view, it’s very similar [to former head coach Gregg Berhalter]. He wants us to of course be organized, and everybody to know their role in and out of possession. But on the flip side, he also wants us to play with a lot of freedom,” he says. “He doesn’t want to coach an attacker how to beat his full-back in a 1-v-1 position. He knows you’re at this level because you’re good enough, and he wants you to bring your ideas forward and to try things, and if you make a mistake, it’s OK. So I would say there’s a lot more freedom in an attacking sense.”
After an energetic cameo off the bench against Korea, Balogun started and scored the second goal in a solid 2-0 victory over Japan. In addition to showcasing his physicality and quality on the ball, his movement without it opened up the US attack.
Balogun attributes his savvy repertoire of runs to his time as a winger early in his career, molding his unique approach to the center-forward position.
“I think movement as a winger is obviously key,” he says. “If you want to score goals, you can’t just always stay out wide. You need to have a variety of runs to attack the middle of the field where you can score. And as I’ve moved to the striker position, I’ve always said that I’m an unorthodox sort of striker, because naturally it wasn’t where I grew up playing, so I would always look to exploit spaces. It’s great with the players we have when they’re able to find me, and it gives me the confidence to keep making these runs, because I know they’re looking for me.
“I know when the timing is right, it’s essentially not possible to defend it. So it’s just a case of continuously getting the person on the ball and me in sync so the timing is good.”
Indeed, Balogun’s goal against Japan was a glimpse of this – Christian Pulisic receiving the ball deep then dribbling full speed with Japan retreating, then finding Balogun in the box with a perfectly weighted through ball. The Japanese defender had briefly turned his head to track Balogun prior to the pass, but when he tried again Balogun was effortlessly bumping him away to create the space for a clinical left-footed finish.
“When I could see [Pulisic] making certain movements, I would just kind of do the opposite to open up space and in the area, it gives him the option to play or continue dribbling, and it’s vice versa,” Balogun says. “As an attacking player that’s all you can do, and it’s the situations you want more of. It’s better to be attacking and figuring things out with CP than running and defending on the edge of our box.”
Balogun’s movement is winning praise from his club teammates as well.
“[He] obviously has amazing characteristics to play in transition, very fast,” Monaco defender Eric Dier said after Monaco’s 2-2 Champions League draw against Manchester City. “He’s a very good finisher as well from what I’ve seen in training, he’s very powerful, he makes very good movements, and I think you saw that a bit today.”
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Folarin Balogun and Christian Pulisic were key in September’s friendly win over Japan. Photograph: Jeff Dean/AP In the September camp, Balogun said that pressure accompanying the US’s World Cup preparations is more than what he’s experienced so far at club level. He can sense the anticipation building through social media. And when he’s in the States, he notices the billboards and the advertisements scaling up.
“It’d be totally naive, growing up in Europe and playing for Arsenal, and just the journey in Europe to establish yourself … Pressure’s always been a part of it, so it definitely does help me going into such a big event,” he says.
He does have one major international tournament under his belt, scoring two out of the US’s three goals at last summer’s Copa América before the team crashed out in the group stage.
“I left that tournament with frustration but also hunger, because I scored a few goals in it, and I really enjoyed the feeling of fighting for your nation at such a high level,” he says. “I really wanted to stay in that tournament longer.”
This much-vaunted generation of US players is still searching for the victory against a top-tier opponent that would validate expectations around the team while internally, according to Balogun, provide a necessary psychological lift.
“I think we need that,” he says. “We have believed that we can do it, but I think it’s not done until it’s done. I think once you get that result against a bigger nation, or a real result that shows you dominated a game for 90 minutes, and you’ve kept a clean sheet and maybe scored five, six goals … that’s going to be a different feeling. That’s something I think we need.”
The next chance will probably be a friendly rematch with Uruguay in November, while the US are reportedly set to face Portugal and Belgium in March.
“When I’ve been in camp, we’ve always spoken about that result against a big team that really starts to change the momentum and change the view,” he says. “So there’s definitely still milestones that we can do before the World Cup that would really give us that confidence.”
Monaco is currently fifth in the Ligue 1 standings, three points behind leaders PSG. Photograph: Manon Cruz/Reuters Individually, Balogun is still aiming to establish himself as a “top-class” striker. A deep USMNT run at the World Cup could certainly hinge on his progress and form in eight months.
“I know what it’s gonna take to do that. It’s gonna be, of course, being excellent in general play, but goals and assists will make that definitive,” he says, highlighting the platform of the Champions League.
“A part of me wanting to play for Monaco is the prestige of the club, what they’ve been able to do in Europe, what they’ve been able to do against huge opponents.”
More friends and family will message him about visiting for those special occasions, and it doesn’t take much convincing for a trip to this part of the world.
Initially adapting to the lifestyle was really challenging, taking Balogun longer than he expected. Slowly but surely, he’s learning French, so as to better connect with his teammates. But beyond the facility, the insularity, the aura of exclusivity, the luxurious cars and yachts, he’s comfortable now, appreciating the pros like the safety and the inescapably picturesque setting, poised to take the next step in his career.
“It’s a player building his journey again,” Pochettino said.